At the end of May in Greece there was market the 75^th anniversary of the Battle of Crete, which went down in history as the first in the Second World War, in which Germany had a serious fight back and suffered unexpectedly large losses.

Indeed, in the early days of the battle, the Germans faced with such a fierce resistance that the operation “Mercury” (it was the code name given to the plan of capturing the island by German strategists) ran a risk to turn into the first German defeat in the war, may be into a local one.

The Battle of Crete is the largest airborne operation undertaken by Nazi Germany in Crete on 20 May 1941 which ended twelve days later, on June 1, with the occupation of the island. This battle was one of the most important battles of the Second World War, which led to a lot of innovations at a strategic level.

The decision to attack Crete was made by Hitler on April 25 1941. The operation, “Mercury” (“Unternehmen Merkur”) was to ensure strategic control over the Mediterranean on the eve of the attack on the Soviet Union (Barbarossa Plan). And it was a continuation of the North African campaign.

Before the operation in Crete, the Allies had the tactical advantage on land and at sea while the Germans’ advantage was in the air. Thus, the German headquarter decided to conduct its operation with paratroopers. The head of the German troops became 51-year-old General Kurt Student, a pilot-World War I veteran. He possessed 1,190 aircraft and 29,000 soldiers (paratroopers and Marines), another 3 000 soldiers were from the Italian side.

Crete defended Greek soldiers, remaining on the island, and the forces of the British Commonwealth (British, Australians and New Zealanders) who were deployed in occupied Greece. Overall command was entrusted to 52-year-old New Zealander Bernard Freiberga, also a veteran of the First World War. In total, the number of the defenders of the island was about 40,000 people. Defenders, particularly the Greeks, did not have enough weapons, and existing weapons was often outdated.

The German attack began at 8 a.m. on May 20, 1941 with a parachutists landing on two fronts: on the airfield of Maleme and in a Chania area. The first landed troops became easy prey for New Zealand and Greek defenders of Maleme. The battle also involved a large number of civilians who had at their disposal from the knifes to the weapons, preserved since… the Cretan Revolution.

The participation of thousands of civilians has become an unpleasant surprise which was not taken into account by German strategists. They believed that the Cretans are known for their antimonarchist sentiments and would take Germans as liberators. Another miscalculation of German counterintelligence was incorrect determination of the number of soldiers in Crete, which was estimated only 5 000 people.

In the afternoon on May 20, a new troop of parachutists landed in Rethymno and, after an hour, another one did it in Heraklion. Now battles were fought on four fronts: Chania, Maleme, Rethymnon and Heralkion. The first day of the Battle of Crete ended with heavy losses for the Germans and an uncertain outcome. The commander of the German forces, General Kurt Student, frustrated by outcome, was even thinking about suicide, reflecting on his promise of an easy victory, which was given to the Fuhrer. At the same evening, the Greek King Georges II and exiled Greek government, living in the area of Hania, were transferred with great difficulties to Egypt.

In the morning on May 21, fighting continued with great intensity on all four fronts. The Germans focused on the capture of the Maleme airfield, which was the priority for them, and they achieved it at the end of the day, despite heavy losses. Captured airfield was strategically important for further development of operation. The Germans began to pass large forces and advanced weapons from the occupied Greek mainland to Crete. After it, the capture of the island became a matter of time. On May 28 the Germans pushed the allied troops to the south. Then London decided to withdraw the Commonwealth forces from Crete and to transport them to Egypt. Most of the Greek soldiers and 500 British retreated to inaccessible mountains of Crete where guerrilla war continued. On June 1 the Britishers officially announced the surrender of the island.

Allied losses amounted to 3,500 dead, 1,900 wounded and 17,500 taken prisoner. The Germans, according to their own figures, suffered the following losses: 3986 dead and missing, 2,594 wounded and 370 aircrafts lost. At the same time, the Allies estimated that German losses exceeded 16 thousand people.

Battle for Crete has been called the “graveyard of the German paratroopers” because of their heavy losses, forcing Hitler to ban such air operations in the future. The Allies were impressed for its part by the great potential of the paratroopers in combat and created their own airborne forces.

June, 2016